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The NFL doesn’t care who makes the Super Bowl. They just get the names and start printing the money. But some matchups will send something that feels curiously like joy through even Roger Goodell’s black, black heart.

Based on the drama of Sunday’s conference championship games and the combatants who crawled, bleeding, over the lip of the fighting pit, Super Bowl XLVI is shaping up as the most anticipated contest in league history.

The Feb. 5 title game in Indianapolis will feature a rematch of Super Bowl XLII — the New England Patriots vs. the New York Giants. It’s the two biggest sports markets in the U.S. and its two most fascinating personalities at quarterback — the Hollywood imperturbability of Tom Brady against the shy charm of Eli Manning. If you’re only going to place one bet, make it the over.

If you haven’t booked Indy already, don’t bother. The NFL — not some scalper, the league’s own website — was advertising sideline tickets for $17,000 (U.S.). Each. And that was before New York won an NFC championship game that had a truly biblical feel — that is, it took forever and the heavens were open for most of it.

As they’ve done all season, the 49ers leaned on their kamikaze defence. Working to prove that last week’s performance wasn’t a mass hallucination, Niners quarterback Alex Smith began by showcasing how bad he used to be. He completed only one pass of note in the first half — a 73-yard sideline catch-and-run to tight end Vernon Davis that cashed a touchdown. Take that off the board, and he was 1-for-6 for nine yards in the half.

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Luckily, the Giants weren’t a whole lot better, despite the best efforts of Eli Manning. They played a positional game, which only works if the other team isn’t scoring. At the outset, the 49ers weren’t. It was 10-7 for New York at the half.

With conditions improving in the third quarter, the game began to take form.

Smith found his limited passing groove. Davis caught another touchdown — giving him four in the last couple of playoff games. Manning replied with his own bullet to Mario Manningham. Smith retorted again, moving his squad down the field for a field goal.

With six minutes left, it was 17-17.

They traded fruitless drives — six in all — before heading to overtime. It wasn’t until Niner Kyle Williams fumbled a punt return in the extra frame that a window was opened. A 31-yard Lawrence Tynes field goal won it for New York, 20-17.

Poor Williams. At least he wasn’t the only goat of the day.

Earlier, the league’s greatest practitioner of catch-me-if-you-can won a game of stand-up-and-fight. Forced to run the ball and absorb pressure from Baltimore’s aerial attack, the AFC champion Patriots proved they can win ugly as well. New England’s Tom Brady had a terrible statistical day — throwing two interceptions against zero touchdowns — but provided his customary infectious calm. That would be the deciding factor that pushed the Patriots past the very game Ravens.

It ended 23-20, but came down, as so many of these seem to these days, to two plays inside the final half-minute.

With 27 seconds remaining, Ravens quarterback Joe Flacco completed a game-winning TD pass to Lee Evans, only to see the ball stripped from Evans’ grasp before he could plant his trailing foot. The man who knocked the ball out, rookie Sterling Moore, was only playing because of an injury to a starter.

That left it to former Pro Bowler Billy Cundiff to kick a 32-yard field goal and send the game to overtime. It didn’t go well. Cundiff clutched the ball wide left, leaving the Baltimore bench doing a collective, open-mouthed zombie impersonation.

The unfortunate Cundiff becomes this generation’s Scott Norwood — a nationwide punchline. His teammates backed him afterward, but Fox analyst Michael Strahan probably got closer to reality when asked how he would deal with a kicker who’d just shanked a gimme to get to the Super Bowl.

But that’s next year. We’ve still got the biggest game of all — maybe of all time — to get through. If there’s any solace for Cundiff and Williams this morning, it’s that their names will be forgotten in the lead-up. Right now, the NFL is too busy crowing to waste its time with regrets.

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